Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC Review (Headphone)

[abdo123]

Also @WickedInsignia I would be careful with that appeal to authority you have going on, if we're going to 'This headphone is good because Amir said so' territory, then this place is no different than other audiophile review sites with their usual blurb.

 

[WickedInsignia]

if we're going to 'This headphone is good because Amir said so' territory

LOL. Someone didn’t read the HD600 thread.

Come up with something material that’s relevant to the review please. Suggestions of fanatical devotion to Amir have always been weak and tone-deaf.

 

[abdo123]

LOL. Someone didn’t read the HD600 thread.

Come up with something material that’s relevant to the review please. Suggestions of fanatical devotion to Amir have always been weak and tone-deaf.

exhibit A of fanatical devotion:

I’m not quite sure that you’re aware of who actually peruses this forum.

First thing I would suggest is to read up on Amir’s background. Then, I recommend having a look at who Sean Olive is. Those are the people whose work you’re trying to school.
Hopefully you can understand why many people will take their word and experience over yours. If you had accomplished such a body of study, you’d have similar weight to throw around.

 

[THW]

measurements and listening impressions aside, the $3000 cable upgrade is enough to make me throw up in disgust and not buy these things

also why is it so fugly...

 

[WickedInsignia]

why do you want to dictate to people how they should feel about a product?

is this the only way for you to maintain whatever positive opinion you have?

Aren’t you agreeing with Amir’s assessment here? You’re singling me out for agreeing with Amir…while you agree with Amir?
For goodness sake man, waste time somewhere else.

 

[Grotti]

Was posted before in a different thread (Sennheiser HD 600?):

Calm down guys, it's just a f*****g headphone.....

 

[MDT]

also why is it so fugly...

Since you need an expensive cable, I can only presume they want to retain microwave frequencies in the source, maybe the frame is a transmitter to beam the high frequency content directly into your brain?

 

[abdo123]

Aren’t you agreeing with Amir’s assessment here? You’re singling me out for agreeing with Amir…while you agree with Amir?
For goodness sake man, waste time somewhere else.

I'm not signaling you out for agreeing with Amir, I'm signaling you out for idolizing Amir.

the good thing about this forum is that no one's opinion is taken at face value.

 

[THW]

Since you need an expensive cable, I can only presume they want to retain microwave frequencies in the source, maybe the frame is a transmitter to beam the high frequency content directly into your brain?

mind = blown

 

[Zensō]

Less than stellar reviews of expensive, widely recommended products often bring out people who post specifically to defend their purchase (I’m not immune to this). It seems this happens because many people self identifly with products they’ve purchased, consequently taking any criticism of the product as a criticism of the self. I believe that’s why these headphone review threads often go sideways. More on this here:

https://academic.oup.com/jcr/pages/self_identity_and_consumer_behavior

 

[WickedInsignia]

I'm not signaling you out for agreeing with Amir, I'm signaling you out for idolizing Amir.

What you trying to achieve man? Give me the exact words you need to get your rocks off.

Stop derailing the thread for…whatever this is.

 

[AdamG]

Back on Topic or thread bans will be handed out. Please and thank you.

 

[Inazzab]

https://academic.oup.com/jcr/pages/self_identity_and_consumer_behavior

Thanks for sharing, this is very informative!

Also, according to the study, "Choosing a product with good design resulted in increased openness to counter-attitudinal arguments and reduced propensity to escalate commitment toward a failing course of action". No wonder owners of the 1266 are defending it so enthusiastically .

 

[Jimbob54]

I'm not signaling you out for agreeing with Amir, I'm signaling you out for idolizing Amir.

the good thing about this forum is that no one's opinion is taken at face value.

You missed their little disagreement the other day then..

 

[welsh]

This is a review and detailed review of the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC planar magnetic headphone. It is on kind loan from a member. The Ab-1266 comes in three different configurations with the "Lite" version costing US $4995. The one I have is the Complete configuration costing $7,995 with the $3000 extra going to a replacement cable (!).

I must say, in person this headphone looks better than when you see someone wearing them:

View attachment 129797

Once on your head, you may remind people of Frankenstein.

Unlike many headphones, the premium cable serves two purposes:

View attachment 129798

First function is to provide sound to each driver. The second one is as a tow rope should your car get stuck in mud or snow!!! I mean good grief, this thing is so heavy and long that you are constantly figuring out how to route it as to not tug on the headphone or be a trip hazard. Sadly premium cables are sold by weight and size so I guess it had to be for $3,000. No, I did not have any other cables to test with and compare.

The headphone is naturally quite heavy at 665 grams but wears almost comfortably. There is no real spring action here. You adjust the width of the headphone so that it more or less hangs next to your ears. With some force, you can lengthen or shorten the top headband. It was barely long enough for my fixture (you can bend it to make it wider). Company -- unusually so -- recommends to try wearing them with some gap between them and your ears. I avoided that and measured the headphone with the tightest fit I could, lest there be riots in the streets due to bass response.

The cups are deep, very deep at average of 34 mm. No risk of your ears hitting the drivers. They are oval with height of 70 mm and and width of 56. Very strong magnets hold the cups against the headphone. You can pull it off and rotate it at another angle. I left it as the owner sent me (see first picture above).

Note that this unit is the forth generation one (latest available now).

The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. I searched for any and all measurements I could find online. Alas while a number of them are close to mine, none are using the exact fixture down to coupler and pinna. As you will see, I have confirmed the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers specially in bass and a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests.

Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC Measurements
As usual we start with our frequency response:

View attachment 129800

Hmmm. Hard to imagine what target curve they were going after. There are clearly anomalies that I can't imagine are intentional or if they are, misguided to be sure. The main good news is that there is plenty of bass response and that we have more energy than we need in mid-range so we can pull that down and lower distortion as well.

In relative form, we have:

View attachment 129799

Company talks a lot about imaging/spatial effects of this headphone but seeing the shortfall in the critical midrange, they left a lot of money on the table.

Next comes a very scary graph:

View attachment 129801

As with Abyss Diana headphone I tested, we have a ton of distortion. Company would do well to pay attention to this and work to find the cause and remedy them. That said, my listening tests at modest levels produced very clean sound prompting me to go back to this measurement and realizing that the distortion at 94 dBSPL is actually quite low. Here it is by itself:

View attachment 129802

Considering how much sub-bass energy we already have, we don't need to boost much so what we see here is what we get. Cranking up the volume clearly causes much distortion though in a binomial distribution in both bass and treble (previous graph). Usually our only enemy is bass distortion -- not here. More on this in listening tests.

Here is the distortion as level:
View attachment 129805

Group delay shows the common messiness in mid-frequencies:

View attachment 129803

We have a going hypothesis that this is an indication of good spatial effects as it shows interference from multiple sources, i.e. reflections. Messiness in lower range though is not welcome although audible effect of such is unknown.

Impedance is dead flat and low as we expect in planar magnetic drivers:
View attachment 129804

On sensitivity, this is the second worst I have measured:

View attachment 129806

You roughly need four times the voltage to drive it to the same loudness as Sennheiser HD-650 for example.

Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC Listening Tests and Equalization
Headphone measurements are approximate. The best way to verify their correctness is to modify the headphone response the way they instruct us and see if the effect is positive or not. Before that though, I listened to the 1266 by itself. I didn't find the sound all that exciting. It wasn't terrible mind you but clearly it was colored. So out came the parametric EQ:

View attachment 129807

Note that the response curve is very odd shaped which makes matching them to parametric EQ curves is hard. I eyeballed them and fortunately the result was fantastic. Tonality improved substantially and clarity improved, likely due to reduction of distortion (my guess). Most wonderful was the spatial effects. You had this really nice halo at and behind your head that seemed to constantly delight in the way it would place instruments. Deep bass was substantial with my modest boost and clean, clean and clean! I listened for hours and didn't want to stop.

To check distortion and clipping, I turned up the volume during some instrumental female vocals. As I did the highs got a bit distorted and suddenly I was greeted with oddest buzzing sound! It literally went from paying music to playing noise. Fortunately that was pretty loud so don't expect it to be everyday problem. With music that was bass heavy, the AB-1266 can produce a ton of them until starts to make a ticking sound with bass peaks. Turn it up even more and they get louder still. Again, this is beyond normal use and onset is mild. Both of these experiences match the distortion measurements where we saw problems at multiple frequencies and not just bass. These drivers are simply not designed to be pushed hard.

Speaking of pushing, I used my Topping A90 in highest gain setting using balanced out. It had no trouble driving the headphone to highest levels per above. My RME ADI-2 DAC that I normally use doesn't have balanced headphone out so I routed its line output to A90 for listening tests.

Conclusions
Technically the Abyss AB-1266 has fair bit of objective faults. Its frequency response varies with no rhyme or reason and it distorts at higher volumes. The former is very correctable using equalization. The latter just requires listening at normal levels. Even putting aside the $3000 for the cable upgrade, this is one expensive headphone. Would I go out and buy one? No. If I did, would I keep it without EQ? No. But if I had had, I would apply this EQ (or a refinement thereof) and enjoy the sound. It becomes a very capable entertainer then.

Without EQ, I cannot recommend the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC. With equalization, it becomes a delight and I recommend it, ignoring the price.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

It is almost 1:00am and I am going to go sleep. You all need to behave and not use this review as an excuse to create another riot in the street!

I think you mean The Monster (it had no actual name). Frankenstein was the scientist who cobbled it together.

 

[welsh]

View attachment 129840

Actually, these ‘phones are a dead ringer for the (presumed) auditory apparatus of the Cybermen, one of Doctor Who’s arch enemies.

 

[Madlop26]

Thanks for the review but honestly no one on this forum was seriously considering buying this headphone anyway.

"It is on kind loan from a member" I wonder how much Amir had to put for these; anyway asking $3000 for headphones cables is instant scam attempt, come on!

 

[RighteousNuts]

If Amir wants to try a set of empryeans he can borrow mine. Saw it earlier in the thread. Also, I have verites closed back from zmf and a ton of others if he's so inclined.

 

[Madlop26]

This discussion is really bizarre. So let me summarize.

1. Amir wrote a fantastic review, which says the ab-1266tc doesn't measure that great (therefore headless panther), but sounds good once eq-ed bringing some unique aspects to the table which can be called "fun sound" (hence the golfing panther)
2. People writing Abyss is a joke because of expensive headphone price, and absurdly highly priced cables
3. Others chime in with repeating point 2. over and over
4. Some owners jump in and say they are very happy with their product
5. Owners are ignored or ridiculed by repeating point 2.

Hm. What about this - Some people love their ab-1266tc because of their bombastic fun sound, which they really enjoy (some more than with the top measuring Utopia) and they are willing to pay the very high price. Others think it is too high which is fair enough. Don't buy cables that expensive if you don't want to.

Peace, guys .

Agree, everyone spends money as they are pleased, in my particular case i would never spend that kind of money for a headphone and cable. There are so many good options out there.....and by the way a $3000 headphone cable offer is a scam in my humble opinion.

 

[Tachyon88]

If Amir wants to try a set of empryeans he can borrow mine. Saw it earlier in the thread. Also, I have verites closed back from zmf and a ton of others if he's so inclined.

Of course he does ! Send him a PM and get the ball rolling.